Posts by Category: Investment Insights Blog

Today’s investment news can sometimes be a little too complex to really understand the heart of the story or “What does this mean for me?” Investment Insights Blog provides eShareholders with today’s important and relevant financial news and stories that are written in a way that is clear and uncomplicated. As an eShareholder, these stories empower you to navigate through the complexities of the financial market. Investment Insights Blog will keep you informed and help you lay the groundwork for smart investing.

For those who filed IRS Form 4868 for an automatic tax extension, you won a six-month reprieve from paying estimated taxes until Oct. 17, 2011 (for most calendar-year taxpayers). Despite your temporary amnesty, remember Uncle Sam will ultimately collect — with interest to boot.

If you were out of the country at the April tax deadline — perhaps taking that long-overdue trekking adventure through Europe — you earned two extra months (until June 15) to file and pay without requesting an extension. But again, your escapism didn’t free you from interest owed on overdue amounts; and, you must have filed Form 4868 if you needed more time beyond June.

There is an exciting revolutionary effort that is quickly spreading worldwide. Reaching deep into businesses and governments, it is transforming how computers talk to each other. It’s XBRL.

XBRL — short for “eXtensible Business Reporting Language” — is an XML-based global standard computer language used to electronically communicate and transmit business and financial data between business systems. XBRL is overseen by a not-for-profit organization called XBRL International, which consists of over 600 companies and agencies worldwide who are working together to build XBRL.

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) have surged in popularity, but should they be included in your holdings?

First, most people may have heard of ETFs but they don’t really know what they are. ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) or ETPs (Exchange Traded Products) have actually been around since the 1990’s but their popularity has soared in the last several years. ETFs are investment products that allow investors to buy an entire “bucket” of stocks through a single security which tracks and coincides with the returns of a stock market index. Bought and sold on the exchange like stocks, ETFs hold assets that usually consist of stocks, commodities, and bonds and trade at prices that closely match their underlying assets.